MEMS/NEMS Devices and Applications

Abstract

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have played key roles in many important areas, for example transportation, communication, automated manufacturing, environmental monitoring, health care, defense systems, and a wide range of consumer products. MEMS are inherently small, thus offering attractive characteristics such as reduced size, weight, and power dissipation and improved speed and precision compared to their macroscopic counterparts. Integrated circuit (IC) fabrication technology has been the primary enabling technology for MEMS besides a few special etching, bonding and assembly techniques. Microfabrication provides a powerful tool for batch processing and miniaturizing electromechanical devices and systems to a dimensional scale that is not accessible by conventional machining techniques. As IC fabrication technology continues to scale toward deep submicrometer and nanometer feature sizes, a variety of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) can be envisioned in the foreseeable future. Nanoscale mechanical devices and systems integrated with nanoelectronics will open a vast number of new exploratory research areas in science and engineering. NEMS will most likely serve as an enabling technology, merging engineering with the life sciences in ways that are not currently feasible with microscale tools and technologies.